COLD CASE

Suspect Nabbed After Prominent Texas Attorney Is Killed in Burning Home

Police believe someone drilled holes in Ira Tobolowsky’s fence to spy on him before setting his home on fire in 2016.

Six years after a well-known Dallas attorney was found dead in his charred home, a disgruntled legal opponent has been charged. Steven Aubrey, 61, was nabbed in Florida on Wednesday and booked on a capital murder charge. He was questioned—but not charged—shortly after Ira Tobolowsky’s death in 2016 because he had been locked in a bitter legal dispute with his mom, who was being represented by Tobolowsky. Aubrey and his lawyer had also been sued by Tobolowsky for making defamatory statements and using “dirty tricks” to get him to stop representing Aubrey’s mother. Tobolowsky, 68, was found dead in the garage of his fire-ravaged home. He died from blunt force injuries, smoke inhalation, and burns. Police believe someone drilled holes in his fence to spy on him before setting his home on fire. It’s not clear what new evidence led to Aubrey’s arrest on Wednesday.